Method and system for listing items globally and regionally, and customized listing according to currency or shipping area

ABSTRACT

In one example embodiment, there is provided a method comprising providing an electronic marketplace; providing an interface allowing a user to access the marketplace and view offerings available in a user-selected region of the marketplace; presenting, in the interface, geographically customized information relating to the offerings available in the user-selected region of the marketplace; and receiving, from the user, request to purchase a region-specific offering via the marketplace.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/693,275, filed Jan. 25, 2012, which application is a continuation ofU.S. application Ser. No. 09/905,525 filed Jul. 13, 2001 (issuing asU.S. Pat. No. 7,660,740 on Feb. 9, 2010), which claims priority fromU.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/241,081 filed Oct. 16, 2000,which applications are incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the field of Internet-basedcommerce and, more specifically, to a method of facilitating electroniccommerce (e.g., the auction of goods and/or services) in a regionalmanner.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Electronic commerce (a.k.a., e-commerce) technology holds the promise ofintroducing efficiencies into marketplace and trading activities byautomating many trading activities, providing near real-time informationto both buyers and sellers and providing convenient channels betweenbuyers and sellers. The ubiquity of the Internet, in particular, has ledto the widespread utilization of this technology as a platform for theconducting of electronic commerce and for providing global on-linemarketplaces. The increasing globalization of business and trading, nodoubt facilitated by the Internet, has exposed a number geographic andregional challenges to electronic commerce. For example, the automatedfunctionality provided by an electronic commerce facility may beunsuitable for global deployment for language, cultural and otherreasons.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, a method to facilitate network-basedcommerce includes determining a site that a user accesses, the sitebeing one of multiple sites operated by a network-based commercefacility. A category list available for the site is retrieved, thecategory list identifying categories of offerings available via thesite. The category list is communicated to the user. The site is aregional site, and the category list is a region-specific category list.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example and notlimitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which likereferences indicate similar elements and in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary network-basedcommerce facility, in the form of an Internet-auction facility.

FIG. 2 is a database diagram illustrating an exemplary databasemaintained and accessed via a database engine server that supports theauction facility.

FIG. 3A illustrates an exemplary embodiment of an “items” table within adatabase maintained by the exemplary auction facility.

FIG. 3B illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a “master categories”table maintained by the exemplary auction facility.

FIG. 3C illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a “site categories” tablemaintained by the exemplary auction facility.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a code system thatincludes software modules.

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic representation, according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention, of the generation of a map file bya listings module utilizing information contained in the items table.

FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic representation of case logic implemented by thelistings module, according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic representation of a map file, according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating a method, according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention, of generating a map file.

FIG. 9 is a diagrammatic representation illustrating further details ofan exemplary implementation of a map file.

FIG. 10 is a page diagram illustrating an exemplary page map thatconstitutes part of a regional or community site supported by anetwork-based commerce facility.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart illustrating a method, according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention, of generating and communicatinginformation concerning a hierarchical category data structure to a user.

FIGS. 12A-12D, 13A-13D, and 14A-14E illustrate examples of item listindex pages generated by a plurality of different regional sites.

FIGS. 15A-15C illustrate a category browse index page, according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention, for a German siteoperated by a network-based commerce facility.

FIG. 16 is a page map, according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention, that may be accessible via a search index page.

FIG. 17 is a flow chart illustrating a method, according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention, of facilitating a search ofofferings of a network-based commerce facility.

FIGS. 18A-18D illustrate exemplary web page interfaces generated by aserver and communicated to a client machine, the web pages facilitatingthe input of search criteria.

FIG. 19 is a flow chart illustrating a method, according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention, of performing a currency conversionfor offerings presented via a network-based commerce facility.

FIGS. 20A-20B illustrate exemplary item pages for an item originallylisted in pounds, but where the item pages are retrieved via U.S. andFrench sites, respectively.

FIG. 21 presents a diagrammatic representation of a machine in theexemplary form of a computer system within which a set of instructions,for causing the machine to perform any one of the methodologiesdiscussed above, may be executed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a throughunderstanding of the present invention. It will be evident, however, toone skilled in the art that the present invention may be practicedwithout these specific details.

In general, embodiments described below feature a network-based commercefacility that allows a user of the system to bid on offerings (e.g.,products or services) that are for sale by sellers. A preferredembodiment of the present invention features a network-based applicationfor online auctions.

In one embodiment, the present invention is implemented as anetwork-based service that may be accessed through, for example, theInternet using a Web browser. According to a first aspect of the presentinvention, the service provides an interface that allows a user tobrowse through the offerings that are available in his/her country oflocation and bid on a particular offering. According to a second aspectof the present invention, the service provides geographically customizedinformation and interfaces to a user of the service.

Internet-Related Technology

As indicated above, one embodiment of the present invention provides anInternet-based implementation. Accordingly, some introduction toInternet-related technology is helpful in understanding the presentinvention. The Internet is a vast and expanding network of computers andother devices linked together by various telecommunications media,enabling the various components to exchange and share data. Sites(so-called Web sites), accessible through Internet, provide informationabout numerous corporations and products, as well as education,research, entertainment and services.

A resource that is attached to the Internet is often referred to as a“host.” Examples of such resources include conventional computer systemsthat are made up of one or more processors, associated memory and otherstorage devices and peripherals, such as moderns, networks interfacesand the like that allow for connection to the Internet or othernetworks. In most cases, the hosting resource may be embodied ashardware and/or software components of a server or other computer systemthat includes an interface module, which allows for some dialog withusers and that may process information through the submission of Webforms completed by the user. Generally, such a server will be accessedthrough the Internet's graphical user interface, the World Wide Web,(e.g., via Web browsers) in the conventional fashion

in order to facilitate communications between hosts, each host has anumerical Internet Protocol (IP) address. The IP address of ahypothetical host computer might be 112.222.64.27. Each host also has aunique “fully qualified domain name.” In the case of the hypotheticalhost 112.222.64.27, the “fully qualified domain name” might be“computer.domain.com”, the three elements of which are the hostname(“computer”), a domain name (“domain”) and a top-level domain (“corn”).A given host looks up the IP address of other hosts on the Internetthrough a system known as domain name service.

As previously indicated, in order to access the Internet most users relycomputer programs known as “Web browsers.” Commercially available Webbrowsers include such well-known programs as Netscape's Navigator™ andCommunicator™ and Microsoft's Internet Explorer™. If an Internet userdesires to establish a connection with a Web page hosted atcomputer.domain.com, the Internet user might enter into a Web browserprogram the uniform resource locator (URL) “http://www.domain.com”. Thefirst element of the URL is a transfer protocol, most commonly “http”standing for hypertext transfer protocol, but others include “mailto”for electronic mail, “ftp” for file transfer protocol, and “nntp” fornetwork news transfer protocol. The remaining elements of this URL arean alias for the fully qualified domain name of the host.

Once a URL is entered into the browser, the corresponding IP address islooked up in a process facilitated by a server computer, called thetop-level server. The top-level server matches the domain name to an IPaddress of a domain name server capable of directing the inquiry to thecomputer hosting the Web page. Thus, the domain name server ultimatelymatches an alphanumeric name such as www.domain.com with its numeric IPaddress 112.222.64.27.

When a host receives an inquiry from the Internet, it returns the datain the file pointed to by the request to the computer making theinquiry. Such data may make up a Web page, which may include a textualmessage, sound, picture, or a combination of such elements. A user canmove between Web pages through the use of hyperlinks, which are linksfrom one site on the Internet to another.

A component of one embodiment of the present invention is a computerserver. Servers are computer programs that provide some service to otherprograms, called clients. A client and server communicate by means ofmessage passing often over a network, and use some protocol, a set offormal rules describing how to transmit data, to encode the client'srequests and/or responses and the server's responses and/or requests.The server may run continually waiting for client's requests and/orresponses to arrive or it may be invoked by some higher-levelcontinually running server, which controls a number of specific servers,Client-server communication is analogous to a customer (client) sendingan order (request) on an order form to a supplier (server) dispatchingthe goods and an invoice (response). The order form and invoice are partof the protocol used to communicate in this case.

Yet another component of one embodiment of the present invention iscache. Cache is a temporary storage area for frequently accessed orrecently accessed data. There are two kinds of cache: internal (ormemory cache) and external (or disk cache). Internal cache is built intoa CPU, and external cache is located on a motherboard. When data isdownloaded from a web page, the data is “cached” (i.e., temporarilystored on a computer). The next time the web page is accessed, insteadof requesting a file from a Web server, a Web browser accesses it fromthe cache, so the page loads quickly.

Another component of the one embodiment of the present invention isInternet Server Application Program Interface (ISAPI), which is anapplication program interface for Internal Information Server (IIS) WebServer produced by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. ISAPI enablesprogrammers to develop Web-based applications that run much faster thanconventional Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programs because they aremore tightly integrated with the Web server.

Architecture

With these concepts in mind, an exemplary embodiment of a systemarchitecture of the present invention can be explored. FIG. 1 is a blockdiagram illustrating an exemplary network-based commerce facility in theform of an Internet-based auction facility 10. While an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention is described within the context ofan auction facility, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the artthat the invention will find application in many different types ofcomputer-based, and network-based, commerce facilities.

The term “offering” is used below to designate any offering by a sellerto a buyer, and this term should be understood to include, but not belimited to, any product or service offering.

For the purposes of the present specification, the term “site” shall betaken to comprise a collection of linked resources that may be accessedvia a network. For example, a site may be represented on the World WideWeb (WWW), and include a collection of web pages (e.g., markup languagedocuments) that may be static, store documents, or dynamically generateddocuments, between which links exist. The resources that constitute thesite may furthermore be any documents, files, applications, applicationcomponents or the like. A site may, for example, be owned or managed byan individual, a company or organization. Within the context of the WWW,a web site typically is characterized in that all resources of the website are addressed utilizing a common domain (e.g., www.ebay.com orwww.ebay.co.uk).

For the purpose of the present specification, the term “region” shall betaken to include any geographically identifiable area, demarcatedaccording to political, economic, cultural, social or other criteria.The term “community” shall similarly be taken to include any grouping ofpeople, defined according to social, political, economic, cultural,geographic or other criteria.

Referring to FIG. 1, the auction facility 10 includes one or more of anumber of types of front-end servers, namely communications servers inthe exemplary form of page servers 12 that deliver web pages (e.g.,markup language documents), picture servers 14 that dynamically deliverimages to be displayed within Web pages, listing servers 16, processingservers in the exemplary form of CGI (or ISAPI) servers 18 that providean intelligent interface to back-end servers, and search servers 20 thathandle search requests to the facility 10. E-mail servers 21 provide,inter aria, automated e-mail communications to users of the facility 10.

The back-end servers include a database engine server 22, a search indexserver 24 and a credit card database server 26, each of which maintainsand facilitates access to a respective database.

The Internet-based auction facility 10 may be accessed by a clientprogram 30, such as browser (e.g., the Internet Explorer distributed byMicrosoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash.) that executes on a client machine 32(e.g., a personal computer, PDA, cell phone or the like) and accessesthe facility 10 via a network 34 such as, for example, the Internet.Other examples of networks that a client may utilize to access theauction facility 10 include a wide area network (WAN), a local areanetwork (LAN), a wireless network (e.g., cellular network), or the PlainOld Telephone Service (POTS) network.

FIG. 2 is a database diagram illustrating an exemplary database 23,maintained by and accessed via the database engine server 22, which atleast partially implements and supports the auction facility 10. Thedatabase 23 may, in one embodiment, be implemented as a relationaldatabase, and includes a number of tables having entries, or records,that are linked by indices and keys. In an alternative embodiment, thedatabase 23 may be implemented as collection of objects in anobject-oriented database.

Central to the database 23 is a user table 40, which contains a recordfor each user of the auction facility 10. A user may operate as aseller, buyer, or both, within the auction facility 10. The database 23also includes an items table 42 that may be linked to the user table 40.A user record in the user table 40 may be linked to multiple items thatare being, or have been, auctioned via the facility 10.

The database 23 also include a note table 48 populated with note recordsthat may be linked to one or more item records within the items table 42and/or to one or more user records within the user table 40. Each noterecord within the table 48 may include, inter alia, a comment,description, history or other information pertaining to an item beingauction via the auction facility 10, or to a user of the auctionfacility 10.

A number of other tables are also shown to be linked to the user table40, namely a user past aliases table 50, a feedback table 52, a feedbackdetails table 53, a bids table 54, an accounts table 56, and an accountbalances table 58.

The database 23 is also shown to include two tables specifically toenable an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. A mastercategories table 60 stores records for all the item categories presentedacross multiple, regional or community views (or presentations) of itemcategories via regional or community sites presented by the facility 10throughout the world. A site categories table 62 stores recordsindicating which item categories are to be presented for respectiveregional or community sites, (e.g., a country, region or city specificsite) presented by the facility 10. In other words, the mastercategories table 60 stores records for each category of a globalcollection of categories, and the site categories table 62 storesrecords indicating which of the global collection of categories are tobe presented by each of a number of regional sites, along whichinformation pertaining to the customized presentation of each categoryin a region-specific manner (e.g., a regional description, currency,language etc.).

FIG. 3A illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the items table 42. An Idfield stores a numerical identification number for each item availablevia the auction facility 10. A sale_type field contains informationabout acceptable payment options such as check, cash, and credit cards.The next field, title field, stores a descriptive title of the item tobe displayed to the user of the auction facility 10. A location fieldcontains information about a geographic location of the item, i.e.country, region, and specific address. This geographic locationinformation may, in one embodiment, be a geographic location at which aseller of the item resides or may alternatively be information specifiedby the seller as the geographic location of the actual item. Theinformation about which category the item belongs to is stored in acategory field. For example, an item Barbie™ doll may belong to Toyscategory. Fields such as billing_currency, shipping_option, ship_region,description_language, site_id include information that depends on thelocation of the seller of the item or of the item itself, or thewillingness of the owner of the item to ship the item to anothergeographic location or region. For example, the billing currency for aparticular item may be derived from the currency utilized at ageographic location (e.g., a country) in which the seller resides.Alternatively, the seller of the item may specify a particular currencyin which the seller wishes to receive payment.

The shipping option information is typically inputted by seller, andindicates one or more shipping options (e.g., mail, courier-same day,courier-next day) specified by the seller.

The ship_region information may be inputted by a seller to indicate oneor more geographic regions to which the seller is willing to ship theitem or, in the case of services, to perform a particular service.

The description language information may be, as a default condition,populated with a predominate language in a geographic region or locationin which the seller resides. For example, a seller located in the USmay, as a default condition, have a description language indicated asEnglish. A seller located in Germany would have German indicated as adefault description language. In one embodiment, the seller may alsospecify an alternative description language to override a defaultcondition. For example, a seller located in Japan may wish to specifythat the description language is English in order to have thedescription of the relevant item available to a broader worldwideaudience.

Site_id information identifies a geographically specific, or regional,site, presented by the auction facility 10, via which the seller offeredthe item for sale. For example, a Japanese seller may have placed anitem up for auction via a Japanese site, presented by the auctionfacility 10, in which case the site_id information identifies theJapanese site.

It will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that the tables mayhave additional fields and are not limited to the above-describedfields.

FIG. 3B illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the master categoriestable 60. A category_id field contains a unique numeric identifier of acategory and name field stores a descriptive name of the category thatis displayed to the user using the auction facility 10. A descriptionfield of the table 60 contains descriptive information about thecategory. Parent_id and parent_name fields are used in locating aparticular category in a tree data structure (e.g., a tree hierarchy)order when displaying categories to the user. It will be appreciatedthat the above-described fields are an exemplary embodiment and otherfields may be incorporated into the master categories table.

FIG. 3C illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the site categories table62. The table 62 stores category information relevant to each ofmultiple regional (or geographically-specific) sites presented by theauction facility 10. One of the fields in the table is a site_id field,which stores a unique numeric identifier that is assigned to each ofmultiple regional or community sites. Category_id field stores a numericidentifier for a category that keys the relevant record to a categoryrecord within the master categories table 60. Name and descriptionfields store a regional or community name of the category anddescription of the category. Parent_id and parent_name fields are usedin placing a particular category in a tree data structure (e.g., a treehierarchy) when displayed to the user of the auction facility 10. Fieldssuch as currency and language are region specific and store infbrmationthat facilitates displaying to the user information in the specifiedlanguage and in the currency of the site. It will be appreciated thatthe above-described fields are an exemplary embodiment and other fieldsmay be incorporated into the site categories table.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a code system thatcontains some of the necessary modules that relate to the presentinvention. A kernel 100 is responsible for, inter alia, (1) determiningwhich site the user entered and for (2) caching site categories in asite categories cache 150, ensuring higher performance by eliminatingredundant accesses to the database 23 in which the tables 60 and 62 arestored. A category tree 160 stores categories in a tree data structure.A batch job module 140 is responsible for displaying initial web pagesto a user of the auction facility 10. A search module 130 is responsiblefor performing searches through the item space, i.e. categories, whenrequested by the user. In one embodiment of the present invention,listings module 120 ensures that items that are displayed to the userare the ones that are available for shipping (or performance) in aregion in which a user is located or that a user has specified. Anothermodule that is present in the system is an ISAPI module 110.Category_tree update module 180, which is part of the kernel 100, is apiece of code that is responsible for constructing the category tree 160in order to ensure that the categories are displayed in a correcthierarchical relationship to the user of the auction facility 10. Parser170 is a module that determines which site the user has entered. Viewmodule 190 generates the user-requested items and for display to a user(e.g., via a Web browser). Currency conversion module 195 is responsiblefor converting a price in listing currency into a regional (or native)currency for a particular site.

Map File

In order to increase the performance efficiencies of the facility 10,according to one embodiment of the present invention, a map file 200 isgenerated by the listings module 120, the map file 200 includingsummarized item records for each of the complete item records maintainedin the items table 42. Furthermore, the summarized item records withinthe map file 200 are pre-categorized, or grouped, so as to facilitateimproved responses to queries against the map file 200. The grouping ofsummary item records is conveniently labeled as views 210, which may beretrieved with minimal processing for display to a user. The summaryitem records constituting the map file 200 may include limitedinformation, such as an item identifier, a title, a currency, and a datavalue, for example. The map file 200 may be utilized to facilitatebrowsing of items that are actively being auctioned by the facility 10,wherein the facilitating of the browsing requires only limitedinformation regarding each item.

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic representation, according to an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention, of the generation of the map file200 by the listings module 120 utilizing information contained in theitems table 42. For example, the listings module 120 may comprise aDynamic Link Library (DLL), that is utilized periodically to generate afresh map file 200 from the full item records of the items table 42. Itwill be appreciated that the frequency with which the map file 200 isregenerated may vary depending on the frequency with which records areadded to the items table 42. For example, in a heavily trafficked andactive facility 10, the frequency with which map file 200 requiresregeneration by the listings module 120 will be more frequent than for afacility 10 that is less active.

FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic representation of case logic implemented by thelistings module 120, according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention. Specifically, the listings module 120 is shown to implementthree case statements, namely a “currency” case statement 202, a“region” case statement 204 and an “available” case statement 206. Aswill be described in further detail below, each of the case statements202, 204 and 206 operates to generate a distinct view 210 of summaryitem records for each of multiple categories listed in the mastercategories table 60.

FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic representation of a map file 200, according toan exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Specifically, the mapfile 200 is shown to include an index 208 to multiple views of summaryitem records (e.g., within each category defined within the mastercategories table 60). In one embodiment, the map file 200 comprises abinary file. In summary, the map file 200 may be regarded as presentinga pre-organized (or grouped) summarization of information contained inthe items table 42 that is maintained in memory of a computer system toprovide performance advantages for browsing and searching operations.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating a method 220, according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention, of generating the mapfile 200. At block 222, the listings module 120 accesses the items table42 and, at block 224, identifies item records for items within aparticular category N (e.g., category 0). Having then identified suchitem records, at block 226, the “currency” case statement 202 is appliedagainst the item records identified at block 224 to generate a“currency” view 210A. Specifically, the listing module, for each of apre-defined collection of currencies, determines if the currencyinformation for each item record matches a respective pre-definedcurrency. For example, a first application of the case statement 202 atblock 226 may determine whether the currency for each item recordidentified at block 224 is Australian dollars. Further, at block 226,the case statement 202 is applied to determine whether descriptionlanguage information for each of the relevant item records matches apredefined language, or set of languages, associated with the predefinedcurrency. For example, a determination made during a first applicationof the case statement 202 may be made as to whether the descriptioninformation language information indicates the English language.Assuming both the currency and description language comparisons arepositive, then selected information from the relevant item record isincluded within the “currency” view 21A for the relevant currency. Forexample, a first application of the case statement 202 at block 226 maygenerate a view constituting summarized item records for all items beingactively auctioned via the facility 10 for which the price is specifiedin Australian dollars, and the description language is English.

It will be appreciated that the case statement 202 will be applied foreach of the predefined set of currencies to thereby generate arespective “currency” view 21A for each of the predefined set ofcurrencies.

Similarly, at block 228, the “region” case statement 204 is appliedagainst the item records retrieved at block 224 for each of a predefinedset of regions, so as to generate a respective “region” view 210B foreach of the set of regions. Specifically, location information from eachof the item records is compared against a respective region of thepredefined set of regions, and language description information issimilarly compared against one or more languages associated with each ofthe regions to determine whether a summary item record, derived from thefull item record, should be included within the relevant “region” view210B. The predefined set of regions may specify regions with anyresolution, ranging, for example, from a suburb of a city to a continentor broader geographically identifiable area. For example, a region couldcomprise a town, a city, a metropolitan area, a county, a state, acounty or a continent.

Further, as noted above with respect to FIG. 3A, the locationinformation within each item record of the items table 42 may be theindicated location of a seller of the item. This information may or maynot be important to a buyer, depending on the nature of the item. Forexample, where the item is a motor vehicle, clearly the location of theseller, and therefore probably the item, is important to a buyer in thatthe buyer may be more inclined to purchase a motor vehicle from a localseller. On the other hand, should the item be easily shipped (e.g., astamp), the location of the seller may be of less consequence.

Returning to the method 220 illustrated in FIG. 8, at block 230, thelistings module 120 then applies the “available” case statement 206. Thecase statement 206 performs three inquiries that are OR'ed to determinewhether a summary item record, derived from a full item record, shouldbe included within a respective “available” view 210C. Again, for apredefined set of regions, the case statement 206 determines whethershipping region information indicated in the item record corresponds toa respective region of the predefined set of regions. A furtherdetermination is made as to whether the shipping region informationindicates that the seller is willing to ship worldwide. A furtherdetermination is then made as to whether the location information of theitem record indicates the seller location as being within the respectiveregion. Should any of these three conditions be met, then a summary itemrecord is generated from the relevant full item record, and includedwithin the “available” view for the respective view 210C.

At block 232, the listings module 120 then increments a category numberto a subsequent category, whereafter the method 220 loops back to block224, to commence the view generation process 226-230 with respect to afurther category.

While the method 220 is shown to generate multiple views 210 for eachcategory based on currency, region and regional availability criteria,it will be appreciated that views (e.g., predefined groupings ofinformation) may be generated based on any one of multiple criteria interms of which item records may be conveniently browsed and/or searched.

FIG. 9 is a diagrammatic representation showing further details of anexemplary implementation of the map file 200. Specifically, the index208 is shown to constitute a header 240, a number of category indexes242 that in turn point to an availability index 244 that points to arange index 246, that in turn points to a list of items index 248.Region and currency indexes, similar to the availability index 244, maybe utilized to define the “region” views 210B and the “currency” views210A.

Methodology and User Interfaces: Browsing

To enable users (e.g., potential buyers) conveniently to locate itemsthat are being offered for sale via the facility 10 (e.g., via auction),the facility 10 may provide, according to the present invention, bothitem browse and search capabilities, each of which will be discussedbelow.

Dealing first with the browsing capability, this capability is enabled,in one embodiment, by a hierarchical structure of categories, as definedwithin the master categories table 60 and, for individual regionalsites, within the site categories table 62. As discussed above withreference to FIGS. 3B and 3C, each of the tables 60 and 62 maintains alisting of categories, and also defines a hierarchical relationshipbetween such categories. In one embodiment, the category_tree updatemodule 180 accesses the tables 60 and 62 to construct hierarchicalcategory data structures within the site categories cache 150.

FIG. 10 is a page map diagram illustrating an exemplary site map 250that constitutes part of a regional or community site (e.g.,www.ebay.com.au) provided by the facility 10. Specifically, each of thepages included within the map 250 provides links to multiple furtherpages, a limited number of these links being illustrated in FIG. 10 forthe purposes of illustration.

A main page 252 is shown to provide links to a sell index page 254 thatin turn links to resources to enable a seller to offer an item for sale(e.g., by auction) via the facility 10.

The main page 252 further provides links to a browse index page 258 thatin turn provides access to search features to enable, for example, apotential buyer to search items offered thr sale via the facility 10.

The main page 252 may also provide a link to a browse index page 256,which facilitates the browsing of offerings provided by the facility 10utilizing the hierarchical category data structures discussed above. Thebrowse index page 256 is furthermore shown to provide links to multiplecategory browser index pages 260, which represent pages displayinginformation concerning lower levels of a relevant hierarchical categorydata structure and item index pages 262 that lists items within aparticular category, when the category to which the user has navigatedincludes a sufficiently small number of items. Further informationconcerning these items may be displayed to a user in a meaningfulmanner.

It will be appreciated that where the facility 10 provides multipleregional or community sites, each of which provide access to a commonbody of product offerings (e.g., the items included within the itemstable 42), it may be desirable to customize the browsing featuresprovided by the respective regional or community sites according toregional or community conditions or preferences. In the presentinvention, such customization of the browsing features of each ofmultiple regional or community sites is facilitated in part by asite-specific category hierarchical data structures maintained withinthe site categories cache 150.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method 270, according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention, of generating andcommunicating information concerning a hierarchical category datastructure to a user, an as to enable the user to browse a collection ofofferings via the facility 10.

The method 270 commences at block 272 with the input by a user of alocation identifier in the exemplary form of a Uniform Resource Locator(URL). The input of the URL may be performed by user selection of a link(e.g., user selection of hypertext) presented within any one of thepages 252-262 of the site map 250 illustrated in FIG. 10. Alternatively,the URL may be manually inputted into a URL field. The URL is, in oneembodiment, inputted into a client program 30 operating on a clientmachine 32.

At block 274, the client program 30 communicates a request, includingthe inputted URL via a network 44 to the facility 10.

At block 276, the parser 170 of the kernel 100 receives the request(e.g., an HTTP GET request) that includes the URL, and parses the URL toidentify one of multiple regional sites provided by the facility 10 andpotentially, a category selection indicated in the URL. The request mayalso specify a view by way of “currency/region/availability” viewselection criteria. For example, receipt of the URL www.ebay.com.auindicates receipt of the request via an Australian site provided by anauction facility 10 (e.g., eBay, Incorporated, of San Jose, Calif.).Typically, the site may accordingly be identified from the machinedomain portion of a URL, while the “path-of-file” portion of the URL mayinclude category selection information. The “machine domain” portion ofa URL is also sometimes referred as the “domain” portion while thesubsequent content of the URL may be known as a “URL-path” portion,

At block 178, the kernel 100 then identifies a regional site (e.g., anAustralian site) supported by the facility 10, which is addressed by theURL. At block 280, the kernel 100 then accesses a hierarchical sitecategory data structure, associated with the identified regional site,the relevant category data structure being maintained in the sitecategories cache 150.

At decision block 282, the kernel makes a determination as to whether anitem listing is required. Specifically, this determination may be madedependent upon the number of items within a particular category. Forexample, if the number of items within the category may conveniently bedisplayed to the user (e.g., where the category comprises a “leaf”category) then an item listing may be determined as being required.Alternatively, should the category be “all” umbrella, category, clearlyit may be undesirable to display listings for all items available for aparticular site.

If it is determined at decision box 282 that an item listing is notrequired, at block 284, a further category browse index page isgenerated utilizing the relevant site category data structure.Specifically the browse index page generated may merely provide alisting of categories below the category indicated by the categoryselection identified at block 276.

On the other hand, should an item listing be required, at block 286, thekernel accesses the map file 200 to locate a view based on the relevantcategory selection, as well as the “currency/region/availability” viewselection criteria discerned at block 276.

At block 288, an item list index page 262 is generated.

At block 290, the index page generated at either block 284 or 288 isthen transmitted from the facility 10, via the network 34, to the clientmachine 32, and displayed to a user at block 292 by the client program30.

It should also be noted that the item index page 262, generated at block288, may also include category information extracted from the sitecategory data structure, or included within the view identified at block286.

Examples of item list index pages 262 generated by two differentregional sites are shown in FIGS. 12A-12D, 13A-13D, and 14A-14E.Specifically, FIGS. 12A-12D illustrate an exemplary item list index page262 generated responsive to the URL indicated at 300. As will beapparent from the URL 300, the relevant regional site is the UnitedKingdom site provided by eBay, Incorporated, this site being identifiedby the machine domain 302.

A view selection criteria is indicated at 304 (e.g., the location viewselection indicating that the view should provide items located in theUnited Kingdom), while a category selection is indicated at 306 (e.g.,category 267 that is the “books” site category of the parent “books,films, music” category).

The item list index page 262 shown on FIG. 12A also includes viewselector icons 308 that are user selectable to alter the view selectioncategory 304. The view selector icons 308 include a currency viewselection icon 310, a region view selection icon 312 and an availableview selection icon 314. User selection of any of the icons 310, 312,314, as described with reference to FIG. 11, results in the generationof a fresh index page propagated with an alternative view according tothe viewer selection specified in URLs associated with each of icons310, 312 and 314.

It will also be noted, from FIG. 12B, as the item list index page 262 isbeing presented via the United Kingdom site, a conversion from U.S.dollars to U. K. £ is automatically provided for items that mayoriginally have been listed in U.S. dollars.

The item list index page 262 illustrated in FIGS. 13A-13D is generatedby facility 10 for the Australian site supported by the facility 10. Itwill be noted that the categories presented for browsing in theAustralian version of the index page 262 differ from those shown in theUnited Kingdom version shown in FIGS. 12A-12D. For items are listed inthe currency other than the Australian dollar, a conversion toAustralian dollars is also provided.

FIGS. 14A-14B illustrates an example of an item list index page 262,where the view selection 304 specified by an exemplary URL indicates the“available” action view for the Australian site.

FIGS. 15A-15C illustrate an exemplary category browse index page 260 fora German site operated by a facility 10. The category descriptions,derived from the appropriate category records for the German sitemaintained in the site categories table 262, are in the German language.

Methodology and Use Interfaces: Search

FIG. 16 illustrates a page map 271, according to an exemplary embodimentof the present invention, that may be accessible via a search index page273, the pages of the page map 271 providing access to search resourcesto locate offerings via facility 10. More specifically, a “smart search”page 275, one or more by criteria search pages 277 and an internationalsearch page 279 may be provided by the facility 10. Examples of each ofthese pages shall be discussed below with reference to FIGS. 18A-18D.

FIG. 17 is a flow chart illustrating a method 281, according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention, of facilitating a searchof offerings of a facility 10. The method 281 commences at block 283with user input of a search request that identifies the regional sitevia which the request originated (e.g., within the machine domainportion of the URL) as well as various search criteria. The searchcriteria may be inputted, as will be described below with reference toFIGS. 18A-18D into web page interfaces generated by the server 12 andcommunicated to a client machine 32 for display by client program 30.The search criteria may include any one or more of a key word, a region(or community) specification, and a user selection, indicating whether arelevant item should be located within the specified region, availablewithin the specified region, or listed a currency of the specifiedregion. Certain of the above criteria may be absent, or mayautomatically be specified by the relevant interface.

At block 285, the client program 30 then communicates the request (e.g.,an HTTP POST request) via the network 34 to the facility 10.

At block 287, having received the request at the facility 10, the parser170 parses the request to identify the site (e.g., the Australian site)from which the request originated and to extract the search criteriatherefrom.

At block 289, the kernel 100 then accesses the map file 200, and locatessummary item records based on the search criteria and the determinedsite. The location of the summary item records at block 289 may beperformed in a number of ways. In a first embodiment of the presentinvention, the search module 130 may perform a “brute force” search ofthe map file 200. In an alternative embodiment, the kernel 100 maylocate a view 210 utilizing the region specification, as well as theview specification (e.g., located, available or currency). Having solocated an appropriate view, the search module 103 may then perform asearch of only the appropriate view utilizing the key word.

In a further embodiment the kernel may access the items table 42relative to a view to retrieve appropriate information from this table42.

In yet another embodiment the kernel instead of accessing the map file200, accesses a search database that is created from the items table 42and indexed by the search indexer server 24. The data in the searchdatabase may be indexed by indices, e.g., the database may be indexedregionally. For example, thr a regional search, the search dynamic linklibrary (dll) first may retrieve all of items available in a particularregion and then perform a key word search within the retrieved subset ofresults.

At block 290, a search result page is generated, which is thencommunicated to the client machine 32 at block 292, and displayed by theclient program 30 to a user at block 294,

As will be appreciated from the below discussion of FIGS. 18A-18D, thesearch criteria included in the request transmitted from the clientmachine 32 to the facility 10 may include criteria in addition to thoselisted above. Specifically, category search criteria may also beincluded.

FIG. 18A illustrates an exemplary search request interface 296, in theform of a markup language document, via which a user may input the abovediscussed search criteria. Utilizing a drop-down menu presented within acountry input field 298, a user may specify a country (i.e., a region),and also indicate whether items located by the search should in fact belocated within the country or merely available to the country. Further,utilizing a currency input field 301, which is populated utilizing adrop-down menu, the user may specify a currency in which items locatedby the search are listed.

FIG. 18B illustrates the “smart search” page (or interface) 274 for aparticular regional site. The “smart search” page 274 is distinguishedin that a search request issued therefrom is identified by the facility10 as having originated from a regional site, and the facility 10 thusexcludes from the search result items that fail to meet certain criteria(e.g., language, currency or other criteria). For example, where a“smart search” is initiated from a Japanese site operated by facility10, the facility 10 may only return items for which the descriptionlanguage is the Japanese language. Similarly, a search initiated from a“smart search” page 274 for a US site would exclude items for which thedescription language is Japanese.

FIG. 18C illustrates the display of a drop-down menu 303 presenting apredetermined list of regions (e.g., U.S. cities) that may be presentedby an interface for user selection. The predetermined list of regionspresented in the drop-down menu 303 is dependent on the regional site.

FIG. 18D illustrates an example of an international search page 278 thatcorresponds substantially to the interface 296 shown in FIG. 18A. InFIG. 18D, a drop-down menu of regions (e.g., countries) displayed tofacilitate convenient input into a country input field 298.

Method and User Interfaces: Currency Conversion

FIG. 19 is a flow chart illustrating a method 320, according to thepresent invention, of performing a currency conversion for offerings viathe facility 10.

At block 322, the user inputs a location identifier for an item, or anitem list index page. The location identifier is typically a URL and isinputted by (1) user selection of hypertext, having the relevant URLassociated therewith or (2) input into an interface presented by theclient program 30.

At block 324, the client machine 32 communicates a request, includingthe URL, to the facility 10 via the network 34.

At block 326, the parser 170 parses the URL to identify a regional sitefrom which the request originated, and also to identify the item, orindex page, identified within the URL.

At block 328, the kernel identifies a currency associated with theregional site (e.g., Australian dollars or a request originated from anAustralian site), as well as the currency in which an item, or itemswithin the index page, are listed. In one embodiment, the kernelidentifies a user-preferred display currency, which is specifieddirectly by a user, through a saved preference or a cookie and displaysthe items in the user-specified currency. If currency is not specifiedby the user, the default currency of a site may be used by the kernel.

At decision block 330, a determination is made by the kernel 100 as towhether the site currency matches the currency of the one or more items.

In the event that there is not a correlation between the site currencyand the currency of the at least one item, at block 332, the kernel 100accesses a conversion table, utilizing a currency conversion module 195,and performs an item-to-site currency conversion for items for which thecurrency does not match the site currency.

At block 334, the kernel 100 then generates an item page, or an indexpage, to include both item and site currency values.

On the other hand, if it is determined at decision block 330 that thesite currency does match all relevant item currencies, at block 336, thekernel 100 generates an item page, or index page, to include the sitecurrency value.

At block 334, the item page, or index page, is communicated to theclient machine 32, where it is displayed by the client program 30 to auser.

Examples of index pages including converted currency amounts have beendiscussed above with reference to FIGS. 12A-12B, 13A-13D, and 14A-14E.FIGS. 20A and 20B provide examples of item pages for an item originallylisted in pounds, but where the item pages are retrieved via U.S. andFrench sites, respectively.

A facility 10 may also provide summary pages to buying and selling usersregarding transactions within which they have participated. Currencyconversions may also be provided within such pages, or any pagesdelivered by the auction facility 10 wherein financial informationappears.

In summary, the present invention is advantageous in that it allows acommon collection of offering information (e.g., item records within anitem table) to be utilized to service multiple regional or communitysites, and allows such multiple regional or community sites to customizethe presentation of information regarding such offerings to account forlocal preferences, conditions and tastes. Further, by having a commonbody of offering information accessible via multiple regional orcommunity sites, the present invention allows user flexibility regardingthe specification of items to be presented to the user, and also allowsthe facility 10 to implement automatic measures to insure the deliveryof offering information to a user that is of interest to the user, orthat is understandable to the user. A particular example of this is thelanguage “filter” discussed above that is implemented in the casestatements 202 and 204 to insure that views for a particular region onlyinclude items for which a descriptive language would be typicallyunderstood within that region. Further, the “smart search” pagesdiscussed above provide an example of a service offered by the facility10 whereby items, for which the language description is inconsistentwith the regional site from which the request originated, are filteredout from search results presented to a user.

Computer System

FIG. 21 shows a diagrammatic representation of machine in the exemplaryform of a computer system 400 within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one of the methodologies discussedabove, may be executed. In alternative embodiments, the machine maycomprise a network router, a network switch, a network bridge, PersonalDigital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance or anymachine capable of executing a sequence of instructions that specifyactions to be taken by that machine.

The computer system 400 includes a processor 402, a main memory 404 anda static memory 406, which communicate with each other via a bus 408.The computer system 400 may further include a video display unit 410(e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT)). Thecomputer system 400 also includes an alphanumeric input device 412(e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device 414 (e.g., a mouse), a diskdrive unit 416, a signal generation device 418 (e.g., a speaker) and anetwork interface device 420.

The disk drive unit 416 includes a machine-readable medium 422 on whichis stored a set of instructions (i.e., software) 424 embodying any one,or all, of the methodologies described above. The software 424 is alsoshown to reside, completely or at least partially, within the mainmemory 404 and/or within the processor 402. The software 424 may furtherbe transmitted or received via the network interface device 420. For thepurposes of this specification, the term “machine-readable medium” shallbe taken to include any medium which is capable of storing or encoding asequence of instructions for execution by the machine and that cause themachine to perform any one of the methodologies of the presentinvention. The term “machine-readable medium” shall accordingly be takento included, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, optical andmagnetic disks, and carrier wave signals.

In the foregoing specification the present invention has been describedwith reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will,however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be madeto the specific exemplary embodiments without departing from the broaderspirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in anillustrative rattler than a restrictive sense.

1. A method comprising: providing an electronic marketplace; providingan interface allowing a user to access the marketplace and viewofferings available in a user-selected region of the marketplace;presenting, in the interface, geographically customized informationrelating to the offerings available in the user-selected region of themarketplace; and receiving, from the user, a request to purchase aregion-specific offering via the marketplace.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising: determining an availability of an offering in theuser-selected region of the marketplace; and displaying thegeographically customized information relating to the offering if theoffering is available in the user-selected region of the marketplace. 3.The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining an availabilityof an offering in the user-selected region of the marketplace; anddisplaying the geographically customized information relating to theoffering only if the offering is available in the user-selected regionof the marketplace.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user-selectedregion is selectable ley the user via one or more use-interface elementsdisplayed in the interface, the user-interface elements corresponding torespective selectable regions.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising processing a payment transaction in response to receiving therequest to purchase a region-specific offering via the marketplace. 6.The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting user-selectabledelivery options to a user for delivery of a purchased offering withinthe user-selected region.
 7. A system comprising: at least one module,executing on one or more computer processors, to: provide an electronicmarketplace; provide an interface allowing a user to access themarketplace and view offerings available in a user-selected region ofthe marketplace; present, in the interface, geographically customizedinformation that relates to the offerings available in the user-selectedregion of the marketplace; and receive, from the user, a request topurchase a region-specific offering via the marketplace.
 8. The systemof claim 7, wherein the at least one module is further to: determine anavailability of an offering in the user-selected region of themarketplace; and display the geographically customized information thatrelates to the offering if the offering is available in theuser-selected region of the marketplace.
 9. The system of claim 7,wherein the at least one module is further to: determine an availabilityof an offering in the user-selected region of the marketplace; anddisplay the geographically customized information that relates to theoffering only if the offering is available in the user-selected regionof the marketplace.
 10. The system of claim 7, wherein the user-selectedregion is selectable by the user via one or more user-interface elementsdisplayed in the interface, the user-interface elements that correspondto respective selectable regions.
 11. The system of claim 7, wherein theat least one module is further to: process a payment transaction inresponse to receiving the request to purchase a region-specific offeringvia the marketplace.
 12. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least onemodule is further to: present user-selectable delivery options to a userfor delivery of a purchased offering within the user-selected region.13. A machine readable medium, including instructions, which whenperformed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the operations of:providing an electronic marketplace; providing an interface allowing auser to access the marketplace and view offerings available in auser-selected region of the marketplace; presenting, in the interface,geographically customized information relating to the offeringsavailable in the user-selected region of the marketplace; and receiving,from the user, a request to purchase a region-specific offering via themarketplace.
 14. The medium of claim 13, wherein the operations furthercomprise: determining an availability of an offering in theuser-selected region of the marketplace; and displaying thegeographically customized information relating to the offering if theoffering is available in the user-selected region of the marketplace.15. The medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:determining an availability of an offering in the user-selected regionof the marketplace; and displaying the geographically customizedinformation relating to the offering only if the offering is availablein the user-selected region of the marketplace.
 16. The medium of claim13, wherein the user-selected region is selectable by the user via oneor more user-interface elements displayed in the interface, theuser-interface elements corresponding to respective selectable regions.17. The medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:processing a payment transaction in response to receiving the request topurchase a region-specific offering via the marketplace.
 18. The mediumof claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise: presentinguser-selectable delivery options to a user for delivery of a purchasedoffering within the user-selected region.